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He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.

This is a sentence in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (English Edition) (pp.5-6).

I think this sentence means like this:

  • Things which Mr Dursley doesn't hope to occur are actually occurring.
  • He is a person who dislikes having an imagination.
  • But, He prefers its being only in his imagination in his mind, to it actually occurring, because things happening is very outrageous.

If my interpretation of this sentence is correct, The original sentence should have "though he didn’t approve of imagination.," instead of "because he didn’t approve of imagination."

And, I consulted some dictionaries for an entry of "because" which has a meaning of "though." But, I couldn't find such a meaning of "because" at all.

What meaning does the original sentence have?

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  • It's maybe confusing if you think of hoping as something we do unconsciously with no control over, so what we approve of would have no influence on what we hope. But if you view hoping as something we can control based on our principles and beliefs, then it makes sense.
    – Stuart F
    Commented May 2 at 12:35

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I think that's a pretty standard use of the word 'because', and I'm not sure why you think it should be 'though' instead.

Maybe this rewrite makes it a bit clearer?

He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things. He had never hoped to be imagining things before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.

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  • Thank you, KQUB. I could understand the meaning of the original sentence owing to you.
    – taro
    Commented May 2 at 12:18

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